Stanwick, Loyola capture `A' crown

Junior's 8 points fuel Dons' 12th straight win

No. 2 Loyola 10 No. 1 Boys' Latin 6

MIAA lacrosse

Loyola junior Steele Stanwick got off to a bad start last night when his indecision allowed defender Alex Lyons to check the ball from his stick within inches of an empty Boys' Latin goal.

"I was trying for that extra pass. Didn't know I was wide-open," Stanwick recalled. "An open net? My God, you don't miss those. But it's not how you start, it's how you finish."

Stanwick steamrollered his way through the top-ranked Lakers, getting four goals and four assists to lead the No. 2 Dons to their 12th straight victory, 10-6, to win the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference title before more than 4,800 at UMBC Stadium.

Jared Gangler scored three first-half goals, Joe Cummings scored twice, and M.J. Leonard made 17 saves, as Loyola (13-2) toppled the Lakers (18-2), ending a nine-game winning streak and another of 23 straight against the MIAA A Conference for a team that handed the Dons their last loss, 9-8.

"When you're 10, 12 years old, you dream of opportunities to play to the best of your abilities before a large crowd," said Stanwick, who scored the Dons' eighth, ninth and 10th goals, has accumulated 20 points in the past three games, and has 37 goals and 35 assists this season. "Tonight was probably our best game of the year, and it was the best time for it. It was awesome."

Loyola trailed 1-0 after nearly three minutes on Jack Rice's extra-man goal off an assist from Brett Weiss. But Loyola scored seven straight goals for a 7-1 halftime lead and led by as much as 10-3 early in the fourth quarter.

The pattern for the Dons, who had assists on six of their first seven goals, was reminiscent of their wins over Gilman and St. Paul's in which they trailed early before coming back to dominate.

Against Gilman on Friday, Loyola turned a 3-1 deficit into an 11-4 lead late in the fourth quarter of an 11-5 semifinal rout. Against St. Paul's one game earlier, the Dons won, 9-6, after turning a 4-1 deficit into a 9-5 lead.

"In those games, we started horribly," said Gangler, who made it 1-1 at 7:51 of the first quarter. "But our coaches weren't having that tonight. They wanted us to get up early and put the game away."

The Lakers' top scorers, Travis Reed (two goals) and Weiss (three assists), were largely contained until the fourth quarter, when Boys' Latin outscored the Dons 3-1. Josh Perlow scored twice for Boys' Latin, a winner of 57 of its previous 60 games, with all three losses by one goal. Haverford (Pa.) had handed the Lakers their last loss, 11-10, ending a 30-game winning streak.

With the score still 1-1, Loyola got a break when a crease violation overturned a Lakers goal. Stanwick opened the second quarter by assisting Spence Daw, Gangler and Cummings, respectively, before converting Savarese's pass on the doorstep to make it 5-1. Stanwick found Cummings, yet again, before Donovan assisted Gangler's final goal of the half.

"We were up a man, and the kid stepped in the crease. That might have gotten the juices flowing for us a little bit," Boys' Latin coach Bob Shriver said. "But they deserved everything they got. They were terrific. And we couldn't match what they had going."